New regimes of frontier science on the National Ignition Facility laser

A selection of results from the NIF Discovery Science program will be presented. Examples include nuclear reactions relevant to stellar nucleosynthesis. Equations of state at very high pressures relevant to planetary cores, brown dwarf interiors, and white dwarf envelopes are being measured, and show that ionization can significantly affect the compressibility of matter. Relativistically hot plasmas and target-normal sheath acceleration (TNSA) of protons are being studied on the NIF ARC laser. Experiments to study magnetic reconnection at high energy densities are underway. High velocity, low density interpenetrating plasmas that generate collisionless astrophysical shocks, magnetic fields, bursts of neutrons, and that accelerate particles relevant to cosmic ray generation are being studied. NIF experiments have demonstrated strong suppression of heat conduction in a replica of galaxy-cluster turbulent plasmas. Experiments on Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities at high Reynolds number, relevant to supernova explosions, are being carried out. And hydrodynamic instability experiments have been done in classical regimes (non-stabilized), ablatively stabilized, radiative shock stabilized, and strength stabilized configurations. Examples from these different regimes will be shown.